Sara Martha

Sara Martha Q. M. is 18 years old. She is married and lives with her husband and son in the Guaranda subdivision of the Bolivar province. She has one son.

Sara belongs to the solidarity group Guantucoto which is located half an hour from Guaranda. The group is dedicated to agriculture and livestock especially corn and potatoes in the highlands area and in rice in the coastal area. The group has 25 members.

Sara has been farming for several years. She grows corn and potatoes and also raises livestock and cattle to sell. She buys at Guaranda and then sells at the wholesale market in the same city.

She is requesting this loan to purchase supplies to plant corn and potatoes. The support from this loan will help her financially to provide for her family's needs. She faces challenges such as pests and crop diseases. Her dream is to buy a car and a home. She enjoys playing sports with her children.

Additional Information

About Cooperativa San Jose

This loan is administered by Cooperativa San Jose, a 45,000-member credit union located high in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador’s poorest province, Bolivar. They offer a unique loan called “Ventanillas Rurales” [Window to the Countryside], which uses a group guarantee but is an individual loan with a savings component, mostly to rural borrowers. Due to low savings rates and a history of macroeconomic instability, many traditional loans in Ecuador demand interest rates that are prohibitively high for some borrowers. There is also a high incidence of extortionist black-market lending in Ecuador. CSJ helps mitigate these problems by providing a less onerous and more appropriate option. Join CSJ’s Lending Team!